Monthly Archives: May 2012

This has been a strange week. Busted it up with a mid-week day
off to take in a show at the historic Columbia City Theater in
Seattle. Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Elllington and Quincy Jones among
the artists to pass through its doors. For me, the attractions was
Jon Dee Graham, Mike June and Simon Kornelius, younger brother of
former Sun writer and current Seattle Weekly music editor Chris
Kornelius. They were great, and I’m having a hard time getting some
of Jon Dee’s lyrics out of my head.

Still having a hard time with John Harbottle’s death. Not like I
was a close friend, but the guy was just so gracious and smart and
way, way too young to die. In case you missed it,
here’s an obit from Todd Milles of the Tacoma News Tribune that
ran in our paper and online.

Mike Curto, the voice of the Tacoma Rainiers and a good guy,
writes a pretty newly blog about the Rainiers, PCL and other stuff
he finds interesting. Check out Booth, Justice and the
American Pastime.

Liviu Bird, Kitsap Pumas backup keeper, breaks down the MLS
salaries that were just released. Kind of interesting to see what
the lads of summer are making these days. Check out his
Boot Room Blog.

The three toughest outs in baseball? The ninth inning, right?
Wrong, writes Joe Posnanski. It’s the first three outs. Read his
very long and interesting post
right here.

Questions and Answers

Q: Do you really think tight ends Kellen Winslow and Zach Miller
will be the west coast’s version of New England’s Ron Gronkowski
and Aaron Hernandez?

A: No way. The Patriots offense is geared to its passing attack,
and Gronk and Hernandez give teams crazy matchup problems.
Winslow’s still a good athlete, but age and injuries are taking a
toll. He’s still worth the 7th round draft pick Seattle go him for,
but Seattle’s not going to go away from the pounding running game
it was able to establish late in the season.

Q: Would the Seattle SuperSonics beat the toast of the time
right now off Howard Schultz had kept the team in Seattle and
didn’t sell it to Clay Bennett?

A: Probably not. Owner Clay Bennett brought in GM Sam Presti,
who built the Thunder into a championship-caliber team. I don’t
have confidence that the Howard Schultz-led Sonics would have made
the same kind of decisions. An aside, I’m not much of an NBA fan
anymore but I’d be pulling for the Thunder if my uncle, unbeknownst
to me, had not put down a $20 bet for me on the Spurs winning it
all.

Q: Want to buy me something for my birthday?

A; Didn’t think so. But if you want to treat yourself to a fun
night out, get a couple tickets to the Sept. 18 show at the Neptune
Theatre in Seattle featuring The Gourds and James McMurtry. I don’t
think you’ll regret it.

It’s pretty difficult not to be moved by Joshua Heistand’s
story. In case you missed it, you can find
it here.

Eric Johnson of KOMO in Seattle was also touched when the read
the story in today’s Sun. Heistand fits perfectly into
Johnson’s long-running segment titled Eric’s Little Heroes.It
features great plays, funny video, and touching moments from kids’
sports events throughout the Puget Sound area.

Johnson talked to the Heistand family today. Tune in at 5 p.m.
on KOMO (Ch. 4 or Ch. 104) tonight (Friday) to see it.

Really enjoyed listening to golf architect John Harbottle III
talk about what he did during his re-model at White Horse Golf
Club, and also what he had to say about the state of the game.

“There are no really new ideas in golf,” he said. “It’s just old
ideas being done better.”

Among the ideas being bantered about now are the shortening of
golf courses, or making alternative courses.

“Two of first golf courses in the world — Prestonwood and
St. Andrews (in Scotland) — were 12- hole courses,.” Harbottle
said. “They played more British Opens at Prestonwood than any other
golf course. They don’t play it anymore because it’s too short.
Orginally, it was a 12-hole course.”

Just like St. Andrews.

You played a round of 22 — the first hole, 10 out toward the
sea, then you played the same 10 and finished on the last hole.

In the mid-1770s, they converted four of the holes — two on the
way out, two on the way back and that’s how golf became 18
holes.

“It had nothing to do with how many shots were in a bottle of
Scotch,” Harbottle said.

“That is good question,” Adrian said. “I think it’s maybe a
little bit of a bigger deal in some other countries to be a
sprinter. For instance, France, to be a French 100 freestyler, you
are a household name. In Australia, you know, to be a 50 or 100
guy, you are a household name. Look at Cesar Cielo in Brazil, he is
their Olympic hero. It is a big deal.”

It sounds silly on the surface, but former WSU and Seahawks
defensive lineman Chad Eaton might have the answer to all of this
crazy football safety stuff and concussion talk that’s dominating
the airwaves and sports pages these days. Eaton was asked how you
fix the problem.

He said it’s time to go back to leather helmets.

Nobody’s gonna want to mess up their pretty faces and stick
their head in there like they do now, he said. Or something like
that.

It’ll never happen, but if you can take the helmets out of play,
then you’re going to solve a lot of problems.

The concussion crisis has also hit girls soccer. NBC News aired
an eye-opening report on a news segment this week. Check it out
here.